December 20

On December 20, 1956, the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended as Federal Marshals served notice on the City of Montgomery that buses were to be integrated in compliance with a November Supreme Court ruling. The city passed an ordinance authorizing black bus passengers to sit virtually anywhere they chose on buses, and the boycott, which had lasted 381 days, was lifted the following morning when the buses began running at 6:00 AM. The ruling was met with white backlash in the following weeks, and bus service was suspended during part of January.

Birthdays

Walter F. Craig (December 20, 1854 – February 8, 1933) was a violin soloist and orchestra director in New York City. He held his first concert at Cooper Union in 1870, and formed "Craig's Orchestra" in 1872.  He became concert master at the Mendellsohn School of Music and he was the first black conductor to be a member of the Musical Mutual Protective Union of New York City. In 1893 he was elected a member of the Antonín Dvořák-led National Conservatory of Music of America. Later in his career, Craig became well known for introducing African American musicians to the stage.

Ernest Fredric "Ernie" Morrison (December 20, 1912 – July 24, 1989) was achild actor who performed under the stage name "Sunshine Sammy." He was the only African American member of the East Side Kids, and was also an original Our Gang kid. He was the first African American actor to be signed to a long-term contract, signing with comedy producer Hal Roach in 1919. When Roach conceived his Our Gang series, featuring child actors in a natural juvenile setting, in 1921, Sammy was the first child recruited. Morrison left the series in 1924 to work in vaudeville, where his talents were featured on the same bills with such up-and-coming acts as Abbott and Costello and Jack Benny.

William Julius Wilson (born December 20, 1935) is a sociologist and author named in 1996 by Time Magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in the U.S. He taught at the University of Chicago from 1972 to 1996 and is currently one of 24 University Professors at Harvard, the highest professional distinction for a Harvard faculty member.. His books concentrate on race and poverty, and he is best known for Decliniing Significance of Race (1978), The Truly Disadvantaged (1987), and When Work Disappears (1996). He is a recipient of the 1998 National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honor in the United States, and was awarded the Talcott Parsons Prize in the Social Sciences by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.

Bob Hayes (December 20, 1942 - September 18, 2002) was a track star at Florida A&M and the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, holding records in the 60-yard, 100-yard, 220-yard, and Olympic 100-meter dashes. He played 9 years as a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, and his speed forced opponents to develop the zone defense to cover him. He is the only person to have an Olympic gold medal and a Superbowl ring, and was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2009.



Photo Gallery

On the December 20, 1978 episode of The Jeffersons (CBS), titled "George Finds A Father", George (Sherman Hemsley) discovers that an old friend and his mother were once lovers.

Roderick L. Ireland was sworn in as the first African American Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court on December 20, 2010

December 20 2013 Holiday in Hawaii.

Publications

Dope in the Church - Jet Magazine, December 20, 1951

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